A Sound Mind in a Sound Body
by Dominick the Dominoe
Summary: AU first contact war. Yuri successfully traveled back in time. With nothing to stop him, the world became his. How will the Citadel species react to a race that is essentially one person? Terror the likes of which the Citadel races have never known will come down upon them, the wrath of an arrogant god. Will use M rating. Mostly based on established characters. Evil humanity. Dark.
1. Timeline-Prologue

AN: This fanfic was inspired because I re-installed an old favorite of mine, Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge. My fanfic will be a full blown war between the aliens and humanity. It is not some first contact war and then peace and then a sequel where the events of the Mass Effect series happen normally. This story is also quite AU, with no Reapers. At least, no large fleet of Reapers coming to process your face. There will however be Reaper tech that can still indoctrinate people, even if no Reapers are left. Also, Yuri by himself is a powerful faction. So, to level the playing field and create a universe with actual conflict and not steam rolling, humanity does not get access to Soviet, Allied, or mass effect tech. At least, they do not get mass effect tech until after first contact. So, unto the timeline/prologue.

EDIT: I changed the name of the story in order to catch more eyeballs. It still means the same thing but I figured that more people would click on it if it was in English.

XxXxX

**48,000 BCE- **The cycle of harvest for the Protheans is finished and the Reapers retreat back into dark space.

**47,900 BCE- **The remaining Prothean scientists on Illos wake up only to find their entire civilization wiped out. In a gambit of desperation, the scientists try to make the conduit relink to other relays in Prothean controlled systems in order to check for other survivors. The attempt fails and almost destroys the conduit.

**47,860 BCE- **Faced with the idea of failing their final orders, the remaining Protheans come up with a new plan. They decide to calibrate the conduit to aim at the location of the Reapers in dark space. In order to get this information, they send a small team of 5 to the Citadel with a transmitting beacon in order to send back information. They then hack the Citadel's computers looking for the backdoor relay in order to find the location of the Reapers in dark space. After that they shut down the backdoor permanently. The Protheans on the station then died of starvation.

**47,855 BCE- **The Conduit was finally ready for operation after 5 years of hard work recalibrating the system. Large pieces of debris are loaded into the Conduit via machinery and are flung into dark space. With no relay on the other end to stop the pieces from moving at lightspeed, they slam into the Reapers with righteous fury and destroy them one by one. The Reapers just stay there until they are eliminated, because they are hibernating. Everyone except for Sovereign is destroyed.

**47,853 BCE- **Having literally thrown everything that they had at the Reapers, the Protheans start to starve. The planet they were on did not support their amino acid type and the food synthesizers had long since been broken. They will ultimately be forgotten, but are content that they are the ones who finally ended the Billion year old cycle of misery and death.

XxXxX

**13,000 BCE- 2157 CE- **Canon Mass Effect species' timeline.

XxXxX

**1****st**** of June 1913 CE- **After being forced back to his family mansion in Transylvania by the USSR, Yuri became extremely desperate. In his bid to escape the wrath of the Soviets, he activated Einstein's Chronosphere to send him back in time from 1972 to 1913, just before the beginning of WWI. He also turned off remote access to the Chronosphere before he used it. All energy reserves in the Chronosphere were depleted and the device itself blew up when overloaded, barely giving Yuri room to escape. Yuri then began to set up plans for stopping the Allies and USSR before they even began. He tracked down Einstein and killed him, therefore sealing Yuri into this timeline and destroying any chance at copying Allied or Soviet tech.

**14****th**** of June 1914 CE- **2 weeks before the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Yuri mind controlled a Russian diplomat into repealing the mutual defense agreement with Serbia. This kept Russia out of the war and the Czar still in power. One figurehead was easier to mind control than many in a communist party.

**21st of June 1914 CE- **1 week before the start of World War I, France signs a mutual defense agreement with Serbia. Spain also signs a mutual defense agreement with France.

**1914-1921 CE- **WWI still raged and over 63 million had died. Food shortages were common as was widespread disease and governments on both sides were losing control of their population. Meanwhile, Russia used this chance to industrialize and improve infrastructure, making much in the way of money selling arms to both sides. After many people tried to flee to Russia from their own war ravaged countries, travel was banned by all countries involved in WWI.

**25****th ****of December 1922 CE- **2 days after the Germans had finally taken Paris after 8 hard years of fighting the ferocious French and British war machines, the Russians invaded. The attack was completely unexpected as Russia had become rich off of the war and in the past had tried to keep it going for as long as possible. There were mumblings that it was the work of a favored advisor among the Czar that lead to the attack.

**3****rd**** of January 1923 CE- **The morale of Germany was completely obliterated. Russia flew over the border with strange and terrifying weapons. Mobile weapons platforms that easily outperformed new British landships, soldiers with vests resistant to bullets and could kill without any weapon whatsoever, long rifles where each shot released chemical weapons, it was a nightmare.

**4****th**** of January 1923 CE-** Berlin fell this day.

**7****th**** of January 1923 CE- **The final desperate gambit to win the war was conducted by the Germans. They hid as many troops in the Black Forest as possible and waited for the enemy to advance past them. 15% of the German army was killed trying to stay hidden from Russia's forces. When they marched on Berlin, the radio was filled with talk of 'voices in my head' and 'he calls out to me.' Contact was lost soon after the incident. The attack was declared a failure and Germany surrendered.

**25****st**** of February 1923 CE- **London fell to Russia, and with it the last Bastion of freedom in Europe. Everything from the Ottoman Empire to Spain had gone dark. No one who went to Europe returned.

**26****th**** of February 1923 CE- **The USA ratifies a treaty of cooperation with all of North and South America against Russian aggression. Japan and China follow suite and plans for Japanese imperialism were put on hold.

**3****rd**** of March 1923 CE- **The world gets a peak at what caused Russia to expand so rapidly. And it terrifies them. Yuri released a formal statement saying that he was responsible for all of this and had taken formal control of Russia. He revealed that it was his psychic power that made it possible, and he would not stop until earth was his. The world saw him for what he truly was, a megalomaniac obsessed with control.

**4****th**** of March 1923 CE- **The very next day Yuri launched a multi assault on Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. Terror and chaos engulfed the population.

**19****th**** of March 1923 CE- **Africa, the most divided continent politically, quickly fell to Yuri's blitzkrieg like rapid advances.

**20****th**** of March 1923 CE- **The USA and Canada, some of the few countries that were actually capable of fighting Yuri's forces, have extreme civil unrest. There is rioting in the streets calling for surrender to Yuri's forces. Many suspect that Yuri had a direct hand in creating this, and the military cracks down hard. This action diverted huge amounts of manpower and munitions that might have otherwise stopped Yuri's advances.

**21****st**** of April 1923 CE- **South America and the White House fall. This sends the remaining forces in America into disarray, where they are easily rounded up and processed by Yuri.

**25****th**** of April 1923 CE- **North America has officially fallen to Yuri's forces.

**1****st**** of June 1923 CE-** Despite Yuri taking a huge amount of casualties due to the dry conditions in Australia and the voracious diseases in the South Asian jungles, Australia and Southern Asia both surrender from civilian pressure created by Yuri's propaganda.

**7****th**** of June 1923 CE- **China is taken by Yuri's forces, leaving Japan as the only free nation left on the planet.

**3****rd**** of March 1924 CE- **Japan continues to hold out. They were the only nation properly equipped to deal with Yuri. The reason why is because they had been planning their imperial ambitions for many years now. But even they were starting to feel the heat. Food shortages are commonplace and 10% of the population has died from starvation. Yuri decided to test his new large scale psychic dominator, identical to the one that started his revenge in the original timeline. He finished building it on southernmost island of Japan.

**4****th**** of March 1924 CE- **On the anniversary of the initial attack, Yuri celebrates by pacifying Japan.

**8****th**** of March 1924 CE- **Yuri finishes celebrating with the finest women on the planet, and starts to setup his plans for humanity. The first thought of Yuri was that he needed to head into space. To that end he put the best and brightest minds that he had captured to work on prototypes for starships. All future starship models were based on the saucer shape of the flying discs.

**6****th**** of May 1924 CE-** Yuri finishes construction of large scale psychic dominators all over the planet, forever cementing his will into humanities collective brain.

**21****st**** of May 1924 CE- **Large scale genetic testing facilities are created. Humanity is then separated into castes based on what their genes imply they can do. Those with good genes are permitted to breed in specialized breeding centers. Strong men are mutated into brutes. People with psychic potential are forced into military or propaganda service. Abnormally smart people have their genes preserved and have their brains removed from their bodies in order to form literal 'think tanks.' Normal people just simply do whatever manual labor is required at the time, as they no longer have a concept of fun or freedom.

**7****th**** of January 1927 CE**\- Yuri undertakes a huge infrastructure improvement project. Magrails are built from one side of the planet to the next. A huge spaceport is constructed in Transylvania, where Yuri grew up. With humans no longer having any concept of free will left, these projects are built extremely quickly. Millions of people die in completing the project.

**1927- 1954 CE- **Yuri continues to live a life of luxury as billions hang on his every word. Yuri himself had undergone extensive modification in this timespan. His cells had been made to not age. His immune system had been upgraded so that when one cell was detected that was damaged, it would immediately be replaced. His own genes replicated perfectly, meaning that his DNA did not get shorter and shorter each time it replicated. This effectively made him immortal from a longevity standpoint. By this point in time, humanity had been divided into several subspecies that bred only with that subspecies. Brutes were the workers and shock troops, psychics were the government administrators and covert ops, luminous humans were created for powering the bioreactors in cities and ships. They had an average lifespan of 2 weeks and could be bred rapidly. Baseline humans still made up the majority of the population, with no particular specialization.

**2****nd**** of April 1954 CE- **Even though he was in complete control, Yuri was bored. He missed the squabbling, divisive, and destructive nature of humanity before he had united them all under one will. And his ability to manage the rapidly increasing number of humans below him was being greatly diminished. Thus, he began a project to create a new elite class of semi-independent humans who would give him advice, administer for him, and live lives of their own. They would be psychic and as close to humanely perfect as possible. They would be beautiful, strong, and smart. But he would need to have some control over them lest they ruin his plans for unity. Yuri then decided to put a kill switch on every elite human created, in case they resisted his psychic commands and indoctrination. He would have to be careful. Yuri needed them to follow his commands, but also be able to think on their own two feet.

**24****th**** of September 1987 CE- **The first human colony is setup on Mars.

**23****rd**** of October 1996 CE- **Yuri's attempts to create a new elite is starting to payoff. The first elite human with acceptable genes is born. Yuri decides to name him Jack Harper and takes to raising him.

**25****th**** of January 1999 CE- **By now the population of special humans, now called Homo Superioris, has reached a population of 50,000. None of these elite class have even reached the age where they can start being indoctrinated. Yuri decides at a population cap of a million for Homo Superioris. In anticipation of these new humans, he starts building museums, stadiums, and other things where they can entertain themselves with the docile population.

**21****st**** of August 2001 CE-** Mass brainwashing of Homo Superioris has begun. Yuri selects Harper as his personal heir.

**2008-2013 CE- **Yuri continues to expand through the solar system. Mining stations are set up throughout the asteroid belt and Jupiter has begun to be turned into a refinery for helium-3.

**6****th**** of September 2014 CE- **The first generation of Homo Superioris comes of age. They are sent off to administrative posts all across the solar system. Jack Harper stays by his 'father' and acts as an advisor and general.

**7****th**** of July 2016 CE- **Reports are coming in that worker death rate for projects is down 25% and construction speed is up 10%. This makes Yuri feel as if he made the right decision regarding Homo Superioris and extra batches are planned.

**8****th**** of November 2034 CE- **Having been bored yet again, Yuri turns his attention to military grade projects. Specifically, he starts tinkering on different weapons of mass destruction and begins work on a new flagship for his fleet.

**5****th**** of July 2042 CE- **Yuri's tinkering comes to fruition when he creates the Psychic Organizer. It was not so much a superweapon as much as it was an enhancer for Yuri's own psychic abilities. The device enhanced Yuri enough to the point that he could move a 10 story building from a mile away. Before this device Yuri would have barely been able to move an eighteen wheeler if he was standing next to it. Yuri then decided to hide the device away and install a very large version of it on his personal flagship when it was completed.

**11****th**** of August 2045 CE- **The potential of the Psychic Organizer is fully realized by Yuri when he puts it onto his old flying disc fleet and hooked psychics up to the machine. It gave them the ability to both teleport people from one place to another and travel at FTL speeds with incredible precision. It also enabled them to use their powers on other ships. However, psychics with weak potential literally burnout after being hooked up for too long. Thus a new sub-species of humankind was born, the navigators. They are short lived clones of Yuri with less psychic potential. They function much like the luminous humans, to be used and then rudely discarded. The Solar system has now opened up to Yuri.

**19****th**** of February 2047 CE-** When scientific probes go near Pluto, they start to pick up odd readings. Yuri sends ships to investigate and finds a mass relay. One of the ships got to close and was flung through to the other side. When they returned the ships reported they were sent into nebula that was almost 250 light years away. Yuri immediately ordered rapid expansion and colonization.

**23****rd**** of March 2079 CE- **Yuri receives word that there is a vague new organization called Cerberus. What its goals are and how it formed without Yuri there to guide it remain a mystery. He immediately cracks down and creates a police state, with specialized humans nicknamed 'Homo Canines' by the population of Homo Superioris. They can smell fear and can read body language so well that just by glancing at someone they can see whether or not what they are saying is true. They regularly check all of the human race for resistance to mind control. If any fear is detected, that person is arrested immediately. This is because the people who are mind controlled no longer have any fear, not even Homo Superioris have that gut reaction.

**30****th**** of October 2081 CE- **After the harsh police crackdown, only 23 people with abnormal mutations that prevented mind control were caught. All of them were baseline humans. There was no pomp or ceremony and they were just killed and left to rot. No one cared for their loss, Yuri did order it after all. Yuri decided to keep the Homo Canines around for occasional checkups on the population.

**7****th**** of September 2103 CE- **After a huge period of time, Yuri's official flagship was completed. It was massive. It was shaped like any other ship in the fleet, but had a diameter of 1km. That meant that its circumference was 4.1km large. Most other ships in the fleet were only 150 meters in diameter.

**11th of April 2138 CE- **Shepard is born.

**31st of August 2152 CE-** Shanxi is discovered and colonized by Yuri.

**1****st**** of September 2157 CE- **The local Homo Superioris governor on Shanxi loses contact with the scientific vessels trying to open the mass relay.

XxXxX

"And what do you think Jack?" said a liquid cool voice behind him. It sent shivers down his back every time he heard that voice.

"I think that you should prepare for the worst possible scenario," Replied the immaculately dressed man called Jack. He looked out on the stars and took a long, thoughtful drag of the cigarette in his mouth. His grey hair reflected the light back at the viewer, almost like the armor of a shining silvery knight come to rescue the damsel in distress. But his eyes told a different story.

When Jack turned around, you could see the weariness of world, all of its perks and luggage in the bags below his eyes.

Eyes that never slept. Eyes that were vigilant, always watching, like an ancient falcon.

The man he was talking to told a completely separate story, one of his own making. Yuri, the self-appointed judge and juror of humanity. On his forehead the Hebrew letters of yod, vav, and resh were engraved there. Wires flowed from his head, artificial, much like everything else he had built. His eyes were also observant, but in a different way. They darted from person to person, object to object, always scanning for an invisible threat.

Always afraid.

The silver tongued serpent made his pass at him again. "Sometimes the best way to be in control Jack, is to let others think their own thoughts, while you change the environment they are in. Without changing the person directly, you have changed their goals," the Paranoid man said.

Jack, always waiting on his own independent analysis responded. "But sometimes the best way to control someone is fear. Especially when your own population is immune to fear. The only people who can then fear you are those with something to lose. Then when we have secret police who can detect fear, it ensures that we can catch any dissenters," Jack said with cold logic that had none of the poetic wax Yuri's statement had.

"It's just, that I feel something coming. I cannot see what will happen to me in the future. It makes me fear for the impending fate of what I have accomplished." Yuri said, with desperation leaking into his voice.

Jack replied, "Something big is happening alright. Something bigger than all of us. But we will evolve. The weak will be weeded out, as has always happened Yuri." The suited Jack then took another long inhalation, eyes once again turned to the void.

XxXxX

**REVIEW, FAVORITE, AND FOLLOW MY STORY! THE POWER OF YURI COMPELS YOU! LOOKING FOR BETA READERS! PM ME IF INTERESTED.**


	2. Pandora's Box

AN: Nothing much to say really. Real happy with the way I wrote last chapter's prologue. Also, this story does actually make moderate use of metaphors and other literary devices such as foreshadowing and symbolism. If you are into that, then this story has some of that. Also, in case you are wondering, yes, I did steal the idea of a psychic navigator from Warhammer 40k.

I think that you should listen to the song that is quoted here in order to get a better sense of its meaning. Only about half of the song is quoted here. Major thanks to cyrisist001 for correcting a timeline error of mine.

**Terms you need to know, Elite is slang for Homo Superioris.**

**Hound is slang for Homo Canines.**

**Brute is slang for Homo Brutis**

**Flashlight or Luminous human is slang for Homo Brightis**

**Navigators are just Yuri clones, and have no special name.**

**These terms can and will be used interchangeably within the story. Remember them.**

Here is the next chapter to my story.

XxXxX

Eye on the TV  
'cause tragedy thrills me  
Whatever flavor  
It happens to be like;  
Killed by the husband  
Drowned by the ocean  
Shot by his own son  
She used the poison in his tea  
And kissed him goodbye  
That's my kind of story  
It's no fun 'til someone dies

Don't look at me like  
I am a monster  
Frown out your one face  
But with the other  
Stare like a junkie  
Into the TV  
Stare like a zombie  
While the mother  
Holds her child  
Watches him die  
Hands to the sky crying  
Why, oh why?  
'cause I need to watch things die  
From a distance

Vicariously I, live while the whole world dies  
You all need it too, don't lie

Why can't we just admit it?

_Tool- Vicarious_

XxXxX

A disc was rotating in the empty vacuum. Devoid of all emotion, colorless, sitting there laughing at the arbitrary value of beauty. A cold and destitute type of mocking. The only marking on the whole exterior was small writing in Russian that said _YSS Omega._

Next to it there was a large spoon like structure with a hole where the dip in the spoon should be. It was neither concave nor convex. The rings in the middle did not appear to be moving or be active in anyway.

Onboard it was filled with beings who embodied what the saucer's empty form represented, a frigid disinterest in anything but what they were told to do. The humans moved back and forth in a semi chaotic way. But it was still uncannily ordered. Some of them were moving around armored head to toe in Kevlar. It made them look like a fire mitt, safeguarded against the environment outside them. The Kevlar was segmented into a rectangular pattern about 1 square inch, each part sown back onto itself. Black goggles covered their eyes, reflecting back images of those who gazed into them.

Further into the ship, glowing canisters were omnipresent. They were so bright that in order to interact with them, specialized sunglasses were needed. They were hot to the touch, perfectly capable of permanently maiming a careless worker, hence the full body gear that everyone wore while on this part of the ship. Provided one had the right protection on the eyes, you would be able to see the outlines of human forms writhing in agony within their cages.

Right above that scene lay the command deck. Gigabytes of video and sensory data were filtered through the power of the massive supercomputer sitting in the very center of the whole ship. How fitting that the object the saucer orbited around was basically a fake brain. 3 humans were sitting in imposing chairs, looking at vidscreens. They were arrayed in a circle, facing outwards, with each chair equidistant from the next one. The chairs were far enough away to avoid distraction, but close enough to interact.

The people in the chair wore more distinct jumpsuits that hugged their forms tightly. Two of them wore an arrogantly bright pink, while the other one wore a sullen purple. One of the officers in the flamboyant pink was distinctly female. The only other thing on the jumpsuit was the light purple marking of Yuri right over her heart, ancient Hebrew letters that formed a distinctive English Y when together.

Her face was exposed, and she was unearthly beautiful. Full luscious red lips and high cheekbones, reminiscent of an angel. Maybe a fallen angel.

With engaging grace, she turned her head. "Hey, did you see the new games Master Yuri setup back on earth? The one where the baseliners had to try and swim through the arctic ocean to the island? The first one to live got the pleasure of serving in Master Yuri's personal bodyguard. It was a great monument to our dedication to His goals," She said with a surly lisp.

A nasally voice replied back. "No, I hadn't yet seen them. Were they good?"

"They weren't just good, they were great! I have replays of all the 2000 failures!" She said far too enthusiastically.

Suddenly, the man in the purple suit decided to chip in. "Don't you have anything better to do other than brag about how favored you are among Master Yuri?" He said in a gruff tone that betrayed little emotion. His face was wholly concentrated on the screen before him. How he even managed to spare that much attention to them was a mystery.

The gay and high pitched voice from the man in pink decided to throw his two cents in. "Hey, don't you have anything better to do than rain down on other peoples joy?"

"I'm just saying that Master Yuri gave us a mission, and we can relax when we are. . ."

"Beep! Beep! Beep! Energy levels from relay have spiked. Relay has been activated by local team," rang an alarm klaxon in the emotionless voice of a woman. All eyes on the bridge turned towards their vidscreens.

The rings in the middle of the object started to spin furiously, and a blue hue emerged from it. "Well, it looks like our mission here has just begun. Let's go through the relay to see what is on the other side." The man in purple said authoritatively. While the purple man's face might not have looked it, his inflection implied excitement.

His hands danced across the solid keyboard interface, sending orders to the psychic dominator located in the ship. The navigators onboard received their orders and began to prepare the ship for active combat. There was probably nothing on the other side, but it never hurt to be prepared.

Suddenly, the alarm rang again. "Beep! Beep! Beep! Proximity alarm activated! Unidentified object is coming through the relay!" The voice said again. Suddenly, the once palpable excitement in the vessel took on a much more anxious tone. It was as if the crew was forced to sober up after a shore leave. Sweat fell in beads down their faces.

Were they hostile?

The once excited voices of the two pink clad crewmates took on a dutiful tone. "What is the composition of the object?"

"Unknown. Hull composition and electronic I.D. matches no known signatures. Ship emitting the same type of energy as the relay." Replied the artificially smooth voice of the analytic supercomputer. "Warning, energy spike from unidentified craft detected. Weapons powering up." The voice of the computer once again said cleanly.

The purple clad man began to give out orders. "Quick, prepare to ready navigators to jump to Shanxi. We need to bring word of this to Yuri. He will know what to. . ." But he never finished.

Darkness. An all accompanying shroud of shadow covered him like a blanket. He had no idea what had even happened. He looked around. Finally, it hit him, he was impaled through his torso on a support beam. Blood dripped slowly from his terrible wound and stained his once proud purple uniform. The rest of the bridge was in shambles. Smoke was belched forth from ravaged computers, the broken forms of his comrades and baseliners surrounded him. He probably only had seconds to live.

With those few seconds, his eyes locked onto the last working sensor still pointed at the ship, and took note of its angular and predatory features.

_'I have failed you Master Yuri. Forgive me.'_

Then nothing.

XxXxX

It had been a rough couple of months for Jarvis. Ever since he led an aggressive boarding action against an unauthorized Batarian slaving ship, he had been taken down the ladder of demotion. It was a political nightmare for the Citadel. Scandal upon trivial scandal, headlines titled 'Citadel Races Openly Discriminate' or 'Is the Primarch a Racist?' In order for Primarch Fedorian to avoid political suicide, he passed down judgement on the shamed commander.

Just like that he was taken down from proud commander of the 92nd flotilla down to a mere captain. A captain of a simple and small scout ship.

It was boring work, patrolling this section of the galaxy. This system was an unaging abyss that swallowed his life and the lives of the crew that went with him. But that would change today.

Jarvis sat down on his command chair, overlooking the bridge where the Turians diligently went about their work. It was a common Turian vessel design, the higher up in rank you were, the higher up in the ship you actually were. Everywhere he looked, the Turian crew was focused on their task. Even if he was disappointed with his new rank, he could not have asked for a better group of Turians. A stark form of professionalism was emanating from that room, encompassing the whole ship. It was the mark of good old fashioned Turian discipline.

Even the way that the ship maneuvered in space was indicative of the ships incredible control. Sharp and quick turns, sudden changes in speed on the fly. The whole of the ship responded impressively to the captains orders. Joy filled Jarvis heart as he took note of his ship; pride in everything, everyone. . . "How much longer are we on patrol here for sir?" except for him.

The question came from a Turian off to Jarvis' right. Saren Arterius was his name, if he remembered correctly. The only Turian on the entire vessel with the balls to speak out of line. How he hated him. He was the least deserving of having the privilege to serve on this vessel. At best he deserved the honor of licking the shit off of his boots.

"We are on patrol until high command says otherwise Saren. Shut up and man your station." Jarvis replied in a very descending tone. His position on the high chair made Saren feel vastly inferior to him.

"Yes sir," Saren quietly mumbled. That at least seemed to shut up his annoying ass.

Saren was one of those people who you either loved or hated him. And Jarvis despised him. His inability to follow orders to the letter, always finding a way to reinterpret them to fit his own needs. He was probably the least Turian like Turian on the whole flotilla.

The whole reason he had not yet been court martialed and probably executed was because his brother was the general for the meager ground forces located in this flotilla. Jarvis would never understand exactly why he always bailed his brother out.

Suddenly, he was interrupted from his thoughts by Saren again. "Sir, you might want to see this," Saren said insolently.

"No Saren. I do not want to see what terrible Asari porn you have loaded onto your console. You are probably creating junk data on my sensor screen, now get it off my bridge," Jarvis disdainfully sighed. He then turned his attention to getting an app on his omni-tool open in order to pass the time.

Before he could act on that impulse, Saren interrupted him yet again. "No sir, this is serious this time! The relay just activated!" Saren said quickly.

Jarvis almost jumped out of his seat when he heard that. What could it be? Pirates? Most likely, he concluded. He fumbled to put his omni-tool away and started giving orders. The first order to give was to get the ship to proper fighting strength. He pressed the button on his chair and began speaking. "This is your captain speaking. All hands report to battle stations in anticipation of hostile contact. The mass relay has just been activated by an unknown entity," said Jarvis. He then depressed the button and began to give out more orders.

"I want all power from nonessential systems put into the kinetic barrier! Contact the rest of the flotilla, let them know that we have a potential hostile situation here!" he bellowed. The Turians on the bridge calmly went about their orders, as if the situation was not dangerous at all. But everyone was nervous, everyone had that nagging at the back of their heads.

What if these were not just pirates? No sane man would ever activate a mass relay. Not after the terrible Rachni wars.

"I want to move as quickly as possible towards the relay. The sooner we get there, the more likely we have the element of surprise. I want weapons loaded and ready to go. I want marine teams on decks 1-7 where boarding is most likely to occur," Jarvis said in quick succession. Inside of his own mind, Jarvis was ecstatic. It was the exact opposite of what the rest of the crew felt.

_Here it is, a chance to get out of the political shitstorm I got myself into for doing my fucking job and actually giving a damn._

The small frigate began to glide through the vacuum to its destination. It started going faster and faster, like a shark going after wounded prey. Blood was in the water. When it got close the mass relay, blue lighting reached out and seized the ship to fling it across the galaxy.

Straight into hell.

On the bridge, the transit felt almost instantaneous. Jarvis immediately tried to get bearings on his surroundings. Straight outside of the window on the bridge was an ugly saucer shaped spacecraft. It was draped in a very glum metal, probably unpainted except for a small marking that he could not make out with his naked eye. It was obviously not a pirate ship. Jarvis immediately formed a plan of attack in his head.

What they had was far more dangerous. A new species was tampering with what it did not understand. Action had to be taken, the law must be upheld.

While that thought ran through Jarvis' cold and calculating mind, the rest of the crew froze up in shock.

_A new species here? This could go down in history._

"Give me a targeting solution on that ship. I want it to be completely scrapped. Send a message via force to the new aliens that they cannot mess with things they do not comprehend," Jarvis said very authoritatively. All of the crew on the bridge visibly bristled at this command. However, they began to carry out his orders. No good Turian ever let his personal feelings get in the way of a superiors orders, even if he could not see the reason behind them. A slug was loaded into the main gun and the magnetic accelerators were picking up energy. All of them followed his orders to the letter. All except for the one he hated, of course.

"But sir, why? They have not performed any actions against us and their ship has no visible weapons. It is quite likely that they pose no threat to us. Is shooting at them really the best course of action?" Saren asked with concern.

"Saren, you will follow my orders for no other reason than because I said so. Now do as I say or else your brother will have to rescue your ass from court martial, again," Jarvis stated with incredible spite laced into every word.

Saren reluctantly began programming the coordinates for the firing solution. In truth, Jarvis could not care less whether or not they hostile. All he knew was that a new race was found for the Turians to add to their clientele. He cared that no matter what happened, he would be promoted. If he fought gallantly, that was. And with that promotion would come the perks of choosing what side of the galaxy you want to be on. Hopefully, he would be able to hit the Batarians right where it hurt.

Either way, he just had to survive long enough to give high command a false report that said that the new aliens fired upon him first. After that, he would get much glory, and more importantly, he would be able to get that transfer request.

The cannon was primed and ready to go. "Fire," ordered Jarvis.

The recoil of the main gun propelled the small frigate back a few dozen meters. The Magnetically propelled slug sailed through the void and hit the ship in the center. The sheer kinetic energy of the slug buckled and warped the armor that surrounded the ship. The slug still had enough momentum to exit the other side, taking with it lots of debris. Escaping gasses left the ship and that fueled the scorching fires all over the hull. Such fires would die out after a few minutes when all the combustible gasses had been sucked out.

_Huh, odd. I would have thought that it would take more than one slug from our weak cannon. Oh well. This new race will be an easy campaign._

"Send word to the rest of the flotilla. I want their support here as quickly as possible." Jarvis said. Now he only needed to find a way to make the crew stay quiet so he could feed High Command his lies. The only way to keep them silent was to kill them. No Turian, no problem after all. But how could he do that without word getting out?

XxXxX

Down on Shanxi itself, a hard sight greeted those who gazed upon it. Drab housing blocks were layered over one another in a ramshackle way. They were clearly built to meet only the most minimal needs, and even that was being generous. There was nothing to decorate them, as the people who inhabited them could barely even be called such anymore.

The roads between habitation blocks were marked with huge potholes, like they were in a warzone. But running through the city, was a large train. Unlike the rest of the city, everything on it was in pristine condition. Metals gleamed and shined in the sun. The train itself hovered above the rails, as if it was above this lowly city.

If you followed the train to its destination, it would bring you to the small modern portion of the city. Nightclubs, theaters and museums filled this part of the planet. One human with obvious and regal clothing would be followed by a dozen in rags as they made their way from place to place.

Sometimes the ones in the opulent fabrics would just stop and randomly start beating one of the pockmarked ones. And they all just stood and watched, like a pack of dogs brought to heel. One even decided to not wait until they got to the nightclubs and fucked in the street.

This was the Megacenter. It was a pleasure retreat for Yuri's Homo Superioris working on the planet. Debauchery was the rule of the day. Cocaine was sold on the streets like bags of candy, primal grunts could be heard from outside any type of club.

But this was only the street level. In the upper stories of the skyscrapers real business was conducted. Thousands of reports were processed here by think tanks and super computers. They then gave their information to the local Homo Superioris, who decided what to do with that data. One report was coming through the process that would change the type of world that they lived in.

Contact was lost with the YSS Omega.

One of the baseliners saw this report and decided to take this report directly to his superior, as were his orders that anything that involved losing assets be taken there immediately.

On his way to the elevator, he passed several thousand brains suspended in tanks. A think green goo clung to all that presided within those tanks. As he moved past said tanks, a barcode could be seen with the numbers 29045912 burned there.

He punched the floor elevator key and went to take this report directly to the man in charge.

It would be the last thing he would ever do.

XxXxX

On top of the largest tower in the Megacenter was the commander for Yuri's forces, General Williams. Held to his mouth was the ancient beverage of coffee. A deep roast could be smelt all over the room.

As he removed the cup, his features became more apparent. Deep hazel eyes were coupled with black comb over style hair. A small frown was also etched into his face. It was indicative of his original mood.

The reason for his sourly twisted face was because the psychic dominator in the main city almost lost power. If it was not for the timely override of the emergency security systems within the power plant, he would have lost control over the planet. For most people on the planet, losing the ability to hear the small thing at the back of your head that told you what to do would have been confusing.

With the exception of a few original samples frozen in stasis back on earth and Master Yuri himself, no one had any idea what it would have been like to be free. It must have been terrifying before, not having a wise man to guide your decisions throughout time, for the benefit of humanity.

Williams was terrified off the possibility that the dominator could have turned off. The incredible amount of unrest that would come about if he lost control of that was part of the reason he was relieved when it was over.

The other reason Williams followed his orders was because Master Yuri could kill him at any time. He was also of course conditioned to. Williams received that scratch at the back of his head just as much as anyone, but it was not completely dominating. That small scratch left just enough room to interpret his orders and act accordingly, but not much else.

The only thing that Master Yuri did not tell him was how to extract his entertainment from his subjects. It always amused Williams that he allowed such wasteful spending of resources.

As he was thinking of a good way to relieve stress today, one of the filthy baseliners came out of the elevator and entered his room.

"Sir, I have a new report I think you would like to see," He said flatly. Williams could see him holding actual paper. It must have been important enough for the slave to deliver it personally and not send it through his usual daily electronic report.

"Give it to me," Williams said demandingly. If it was another infrastructure failure report, Williams was going to lose his shit.

The baseliner walked up to General Williams. Here, the differences became quite apparent. The baseliner was crooked, leaning to one side. Dirt marred his face and a terrible smell came from his malodorous body. This was the fate of those who were genetic rejects. At best it was to be a messenger. At worst, they were taken to earth never to be seen again. Rumor held that Master Yuri held many cruel experiments on them.

But compared to the pathetic being before him, Williams was elegant. A sort of wiry strength could be seen below his suit. Strong, but not a body builder. As opposed to the smell of dying animals, the air around Williams had an aroma of cinnamon. He towered over the slave by at least 8 inches. It was not because the slave was short, but because he had a large 6'4 frame.

As the slave handed him the report, Williams's field of view became very narrow. All of a sudden, it was just him, the report, and now the object of his wrath, the baseliner who brought him this terrible news. It was then that he noted the slave's skin was very pale, like the first of the 4 horsemen from the book of Revelation.

His eyes scanned the paper over and over again, trying to come up with some way to reject the information he was seeing. But there was no way to misinterpret what he was seeing.

The YSS Omega was missing.

He had failed to take proper precautions for hostile contact.

He had failed his master.

There was only one explanation for a sudden disappearance like that, aliens. Pirates did not exist, no one could even think of disobeying Yuri. Anger welled up in Williams's chest.

"Slave, what is your designation?" Williams asked in a dangerously calm voice. The type of threatening voice that will petrify you, turn you to stone.

But it had no effect on the baseliner. "My designation is 29045912 sir," he said without a hint of fear.

"29045912, stand still," order Williams. There was murder in his eyes. Before he was killed by Master Yuri for his incompetence, he would find release in killing someone else. His hands were curled into fists.

Then it began.

Punch after punch after punch.

Williams's fists ached, they were covered in blood. Broken teeth filled the apartment around him. But throughout all of this, there was not one peep from the slave. Suffocating silence that was interrupted only by the sounds of impact.

Suddenly, the slave's body could take it no longer, and the superhuman strength of Williams caved his skull in. Brains splattered all over the Persian rug.

Now that he dealt with his anger issues, Williams calmly walked over to the communicator. He then began to put commands into the psychic dominator. 'Prepare the fleet for potential hostile contact. I want them hidden away to maintain the element of surprise. All population report to processing centers and military outposts. Prepare a psychic message to be sent to earth. Tell Master Yuri we have engaged hostile aliens.'

Everyone on the colony then got a new directive. Elites fled out of clubs. Brutes left their construction projects. Hounds left their posts. Psychics just stayed in their command centers, preparing for war.

It was all a part of a contingency plan Yuri put into place in case of a hostile contact.

There would be hell to pay for this.

XxXxX

Admiral Septilius was completely focused on the task before him. The other part of the flotilla that had patrolled around the opposite side of the nebula. When he had received a summon from that lowly piece of shit Jarvis, he scrambled to put the flotilla back together. It was a relatively small flotilla of only 27 ships. 19 frigates, 6 cruisers, 1 heavy cruiser and 1 carrier. His flotilla had been one of many to combat test the effectiveness of a new class of ship designed to just transport fighters and troops.

It was a waste of money it his opinion, both the design and the fact that it was assigned to his flotilla. Surely they could have assigned it to a more active system in the traverse if they wanted to test its combat capabilities.

Dispersed over the whole flotilla was a division of troops, led by General Desolas. It was a relatively small division of 15,000 Turian soldiers.

Again, why they were assigned to his fleet confused him. The only soldiers he would need were a couple of marines to resist boarding actions. Not a whole goddamn division. What a gross misallocation of valuable resources.

At least, that was what he first thought. Now he was happy that High Command had given his flotilla these things. He would find in a few short hours that even this was not nearly enough to do the task that he needed to do.

Pacify this new race.

But he did not yet know that. His fleet flew in an arrogant wedge shaped formation. Each ship was positioned so that they could fire their prow mass accelerators. The strongest ships were in front to take the brunt of the attack, while the weakest were further back, giving them room to maneuver and dodge shots if need be. It was a tried and true tactic, used since the ancient Krogan Rebellions.

It was this formation that would be their downfall.

The ships had dropped out of FTL no more than a few hundred thousand Kms from their destination. The bright exhaust poured out of their engines as they accelerated towards their destination, a verdant garden world.

Onboard the command ship, Septilius was going through his final plans of assault on the planet. In the board room he was surrounded by other ship captains' holograms. A deep scar ran down the right side of his face, a relic from a Krogan warlord he had to put down. An air of astute authority also came from his presence, the type that came with age and experience.

"When we reach this new world, I want everyone to destroy whatever mediocre fleet and orbital defenses are around the planet. No missed shots, I do not want infrastructure collateral. The more the population cooperates with us, the smoother their integration into the Hierarchy." Septilius said.

"Sir, what of the Citadel when they learn of our actions?" said one of the captains to Septilius.

Septilius face took on a thoughtful look. "The Citadel will probably not take too kindly to our actions. But they will need to deal with it. A new and potentially dangerous race that just decided to open up a relay? Not only that, but they fired upon our ship? We are perfectly justified in our actions. The Turians exist to keep peace at all costs. That includes nipping a potential threat in the bud. Maybe even with our guidance, they will become productive members of galactic society." Septilius said. His voice was gentle, like a father speaking down to a child in need of understanding.

The captain who addressed him seemed content with that answer and stayed his breath. With no more questions being floated around, Septilius decided to end the meeting.

"Alright, everyone to your posts! I want everyone to keep com channels open for my orders. You are dismissed," Septilius said. He left the room to return to his command chair. It was a convenient design to have the com room right behind the bridge. On the outside, his calm demeanor gave the people around him confidence. But on the inside, he was a nervous wreck.

_What if I fail this? What if this backfires and comes down on my head? What if integration does not go well?_

But he could not show doubt. Doubt from a commander only inspired fear in the ranks of soldiers. Indecisiveness that could lose them the battle, if there was a battle to be had that is. That was the other thing that threw Septilius off, he had no idea of the new species capabilities. Attacking blind is one of the things that Septilius hated the most.

Outside of the glass pane on the bridge, he could see the small dot that he was approaching get larger and larger. The nervousness that he felt within his soul was banished when he got close enough to see what little the planet had in defenses. There were only a few minimal satellites in orbit around the planet. They did not even look to have weapons on them. There was not even a fleet orbiting it. Maybe the ship that Jarvis had destroyed was their only capable spaceship.

He also detected very few radio transmissions.

He thumbed the com button to communicate with the fleet. "This is Admiral Septilius. Bring all of the fleet to a halt. Shoot down the satellites surrounding the planet. After that, send first recon down to the planet. I want to know what we are getting into before I commit a full division to the planet," Septilius ordered.

Within the chambered part of the heavy cruiser where the main gun is, a high pitched wine could be heard. It slowly became louder and higher pitched. Suddenly, the round in the chamber accelerated violently. If the gun was not compartmentalized and separate from the rest of the ship, a sonic boom would have been heard as it accelerated out of the barrel at several times the speed of sound.

The same scene was repeated in several ships all across the flotilla as they fired their primary guns. Nothing even stood in the way of the moving hunks of metal as they went through the satellites.

Thankfully, the Turian fleet was angled perpendicular to the planet so the rounds would not keep going and smash into the ground. Once they hit their designated targets, the slugs kept going at a fast enough pace to escape orbit. They were never to be seen again, condemned to fly through the void until another force acted upon them.

And with that act, the Turians had forever opened Pandora 's Box.

XxXxX

**Codex: Psychic Corps-** Established back in 1916 in the original takeover of earth, the Psychic Corps is Yuri's elite force for dealing with enemies. It is composed entirely of thoroughly indoctrinated humans with latent psychic abilities. They proved their effectiveness when they rapidly overran Europe. Ever since the final conquest of Japan, the psychic Corps has seen little action. There have only been a handful of minor incidents regarding Cerberus where the Psychic Corps has actually been needed to apply force.

The specialty of this Corps is mind control and psychological tactics. And occasionally, when the time comes for it, overwhelming barrages of psychic energy. This Corps very often works together with other Corps to make strong combined arms groups. The current strength of the Psychic Corps as of last count was 5.5 million strong, making it the 3rd largest Corps in Yuri's arsenal.

Specialized equipment includes Mastermind tanks, Psychic Devastator squads, and baseline psychic initiates.

**Codex: Brutis Corps- **Composed of strong armed Brutes, or Homo Brutis, hence the name. This Corps specializes in shock assaults and strong spearhead attacks. Brutes can be mutated from any human in the population. However, specialized Brutes mutated from humans who were bred specifically to be Brutes are significantly stronger, more agile, more intelligent, and more resistant to damage.

Brute anatomy is composed of 2 beating hearts, silicon plating on the skin, and extremely dense muscular structure make for an effective soldier. While significantly more durable than an average human, they do not come close to a Krogan standard of toughness. However, despite potential for a really effective shock force, Yuri tends not to arm basic Brutes with weapons, preferring to save manufacturing capabilities for more advanced hardware in other Corps. Part of the reason for this being because He has not had to make use of this Corps since his domination of earth was finished. Despite this, basic Brutes are still very deadly in close range.

But while basic Brutes have no weapons to speak of, elite Brutes often carry weapons. These are separated into 2 categories. The anti-vehicle Brutes with large weapons, and jumpack Brutes with giant mauls and explosive packs. Both are very rare though when compared to the everyday Brute.

This Corps is the second largest in Yuri's army, with 8 million strong. However, numbers are easily replenished and losses are never considered for this Corps. If 30 Brutes die to kill 1 enemy, it was a success.

Specialized weapons include Mauler tanks, Magnitrons, and specialized Brute infantry.

XxXxX

Thank you for reading. Now review my story. Let me know what you think of my writing style, characters, plot, anything. Just give me feedback.


	3. A Dark Matter Part 1

AN: Sorry about the long update time. I had a very busy couple of weeks and things just caught up to me. Hopefully updates in the future will be more constant and consistent. Also, sorry for my relatively short chapter. I was planning on writing a 15k word chapter, but if I did that I would have had to wait another 2 weeks. I think you guys can appreciate around 1/3 of a chapter for the moment. I apologize for the unfinished state of some of it, put it will be made up in part 2, I promise. Now, for some review responses.

**Alucard Bellsing:** I do not think that it is really that original. The only major difference is in the way the character thinks about his action. I was trying to create a real ulterior motive because most first contact describe Turians as being mindless monkeys who shoot first and ask later. I decided to change that up a little bit, so that a shoot first ask later actually logically made sense. The drama of Jarvis trying to keep his secret will definitely play a role in the story and the escalation of the war. I'm trying to make the Turians grey in terms of morality. Humans are obviously just bad, but I do not want some classic-good-vs-evil-where-the-good-guys-always-win scenario. I want it to be somewhat realistic. And that realism is created by having Jarvis justify his own actions. But the question is did he do the right thing? Beause you know the humans would have attacked the Turians anyway. So was his unprovoked attack really justified? Was it the right action? Is it really evil? It's up to the reader to decide that one.

**GreenRena:** I was thinking more of a crossover between Batarians, Borg, and Dark Eldar. The people at the very top do have some free will-ish unlike the Borg.

**Kaioo: **Yes, yes I have. I was thinking in terms of balance. The Turians need to be strong in order to take on humanity.

**Random Guest Dude:** About the Brutes, FUCKING READ WHAT I WROTE BEFORE COMMENTING AND CRITICIZING MY WORK! Jesus. If you are going to criticize my work, make sure it's actually in the story. I used the words durability and toughness not strength.

At the beginning of every chapter, I will have a line of poetry or a quote that details a conflict or event that will come about in the story. Will be a feature from here on out. If it is a poem, it will deliberately have several different ways to interpret it within the context of the story. And they are all correct.

I am definitely going to try to make more character interactions and development in this chapter. The other one was little dry on that so I will try for more dialogue. I am going to be doing metric fucktons with Saren's character, I am so excited for what I am going to do for him.

Some OC characters will stick around, but minor characters that I kill off will always represent something. Look for that in my characters.

Also, how do I fix the moderate anonymous review? I do not want that. I want every review to be seen, regardless of whether or not you have a profile.

Yes, I know that here Saren is depicted as an ensign and not a soldier. Just hold on, that will not last long. I am just trying to get his motivations in place for the rest of the story. Also, I have this kickass and dramatic plotline planned for Cerberus. I am so looking forward to writing that. Anything that might seem out of place now will have it fixed later in the story. Nothing is happening perchance, just wait and see. Behind every invasion is a bureaucrat with a pen.

NO CHARACTER IS SAFE, NOT EVEN ESTABLISHED AND WELL LOVED CHARACTERS. This story will be dark, like 40k dark, so do not expect fucking everyone to be just fine and live forever. It isn't happening.

Obviously, the italics are for thoughts. This is where I temporarily switch the perspective from third to first person.

Onto the next chapter.

XxXxX

I cannot say I'm foreign to the fact  
that darkness has its mass, and depth, and weight.  
It sags on shoulders, pitching over cliffs,  
assuming unnatural shapes among the trees  
at dusk. Inspiring visages in gray  
and blue and black. It hangs on me, this weight,  
and fills the gaps between the stars, at least  
I've heard the theories say, and I believe...  
I know it's true. I never touch the stars  
but darkness settled in among the stuff  
that made us human. That makes us breathe.

In empty stomachs cramped with hunger pains,  
rebuking offered gifts of food, to feed  
the naked, mad fix, the crawling skin, the fevered blood,  
to lay beneath the curled wet boxes stacked  
against the wintry cold. Between the knots  
of silk, of coarsened fiber, against the flesh,  
against the throat. And in the voice that calls  
you home, awake the moment just before  
you make your stand, proclaiming death  
to fear. In ticking clocks that count to sleep  
upon the closing of another wasted day.  
I know this crushing darkness has its weight.

_Dennis Pitman- Dark Matter_

XxXxX

In the void a world was burning.

Luscious jungles had turned to dust and glass. Bright lights of the artificial kind had been snuffed out by the more natural kind of light, fire. The flames burned everything they touched. Every crevice, every skyscraper, every person.

Every soul.

But one person's soul was marked more heavily than others. Saren walked through the dried carcass, a dead city, once a home for the living. He was alone, but the weight of his former comrades sagged down on his shoulders. His very posture gave a defeated look as he trudged on through. The tall and fancy buildings leered down at him.

The fire left a scar on his soul, overflowing with hate and venom. With his eyes directed to the sky, he vowed to himself.

_I will have my revenge._

XxXxX

3 weeks earlier.

The shuttle bounced and banged around from the turbulence in the air. Everyone in the shuttle was sweating. However, it was not due to the heat of reentry, but to the tension that they all felt. But tension was not the only thing they felt. The closer and closer they got to the ground, the more everyone had a sort of itch in the back of their heads.

For fear of destroying unit discipline, no one mentioned it. Everyone on the shuttle was twitching. Something was simply not right. Then it happened, the first casualty of the war.

The pilot himself started laughing hysterically, like a madman. All eyeballs turned to the insane cackling. Then, he began to scream. "For Yuri!" he exclaimed.

Suddenly, all power to the craft cut out. Turians were thrown from their seat as it began a death roll downwards. One was ejected so forcefully that his neck snapped into an unnatural angle. Dead before he even hit the ground. The flying carcass then landed on the ground and exploded.

No survivors.

This scene was repeated all over the planet. Soldiers grabbed their weapons and fired upon their former comrades. Blood would paint the cockpit in a macabre visage of death as the pilots were gunned down. Other shuttles willingly threw themselves into crazy maneuvers, trying to hit the craft next to them or diving for the ground like ancient birds of prey, never to pull back up.

Only a few shuttles that landed in the swamps far away from civilization managed to escape the hysteria that had gripped the rest of the scout force. The enemy had managed to almost wipe out the entire scout force without firing a single shot. Almost all 1000.

Almost.

Inside another shuttle far away from the 'battle,' 10 Turians were strapped into their chairs, descending onto the ground.

"Sir, what the hell is happening out there?" Asked a soldier by the name of Kaldus. He was identical to the rest of his unit, clad in camouflaged armor that hugged his Turian figure.

"Don't ask questions and keep your mind on the mission. We are almost at the LZ," responded another Turian. The way he spoke down to the other soldier suggested a superior rank. However, nothing on his armor gave it away. A gold identification marker would both give away his position and rank to the enemy. The snipers would destroy him easily. Cut off the head of the snake and the body dies.

"I just don't like this sarge. We randomly lose contact with the rest of the scouts who were checking out major population centers and I'm just supposed to completely ignore it," Kaldus said to his superior.

"Yup," came the reply. But it was not from the sergeant. The voice was feminine, or at least as feminine as a Turian voice could sound. It was Elya, Kaldus' long time sweetheart. He could not believe his luck when he heard that when they were both conscripted, that they were in the same division, same centurion, same squad. Now he wished that she was far away, his sweet little white raven.

"Thanks for the confirmation honey," Kaldus chuckled dryly. In the past, the sergeant had tried to clamp down on this chatter before battle, but he had learned to let it slide. According to combat sims where his squad socialized before doing any mission, success rate increased by 33%.

"Just doing my job munchkin," Elya replied humorously. Despite the attempt at lightening the tormenting mood in the air, it was still dark and gritty. Cold silence came back upon them, and it stayed until the pilot made his announcement.

A clear Turian voice was heard from the cockpit. "Alright boys, we are almost at the LZ. Keep your eyes sharp and your talons sharper. I do not want to be flying you boys back in body bags. I'd almost grown attached to you miserable bunch." Said the pilot.

"The only one here who's miserable is Sarge. The rest of us are just peachy," said a soldier to Kaldus' right. Kaldus didn't yet know him by name and he didn't want to yet. He made a habit of waiting at least one mission before learning anyone's name. Scout centurions had a high enough fatality rate to warrant such caution.

"15 seconds, spirits be with you!" the pilot said with finality. All the Turians grabbed their Phaeston assault rifles. Nervous clacking could be heard as everyone performed a last minute check on their weapon's condition. Safety harnesses were undone in preparation for rapid deployment.

Then all of a sudden, the shuttle ceased its monochrome movement. An electronic whir could be heard. Half a second later, the doors opened and everyone jumped out. No words were spoken. There was no need to. Anything that could give away your position to an enemy that might be lurking in the trees was unprofessional, and the Turians were anything but.

Not that it really mattered. A giant shuttle landing there would have given away anyone's position, no matter how good of a soldier they thought they were.

Just as quickly as it landed, the shuttle left. Leaving behind it the small and disciplined pitter patter of Turian talons.

Kaldus had deathly tight grip on his rifle as if the Grim Reaper himself was coming for him. The sergeant beckoned him and the rest of the squad over to his side. He and the rest of the squad formed a circle, but no one made eye contact with the sergeant. Once again, it was for the same reason sarge had no identifying rank. Never point out your commanding officer to the enemy.

In a tiny whisper, he began to give his orders. "Alright boys, High Command has told us to scout an enemy facility that is 15 kilometers north from our position. Pre-invasion scans showed that there is a lot of enemy movement over there. I want eyes up at all times. No one gets the jump on us. Is that understood?" Asked the sergeant. Kaldus and the other Turians confirmed his instructions by twisting their heads to the right, a way of showing submissiveness and willingness to follow orders. "Alright. Form up on me, single file."

As soon as he gave the order, Kaldus fell into step with all the others. Sarge was on point and Kaldus was the second from the back of the line. So began the 15 km trek through the rough terrain. Now that everything was straightened away, Kaldus began to get a bearing on his surroundings. Large bubbles of gas rose and popped, releasing methane and other terrible smelling gasses into the air. The trees looked sick and dying, as if they were cursed with undeath. The very ground upon which he tread was like quicksand and threated to suck him in if he did not move quickly enough. This place had none of the lively atmosphere the rest of the planet had.

Kaldus then refocused on his squad. Just in front of him was Elya. It was a beautiful view. The sexy shape of her fringes was like a black hole to his eyes, drawing all light towards them.

_If I am going to be killed today, At least I died the right way._

Suddenly there was a shuffling of leaves in the woods, followed by a long and pregnant pause. Kaldus whipped his weapon around, scanning for any indication of enemy contact.

Then another snap of a twig breaking, this time on the other side of the squad. He was nervous. His heart faster and faster in his chest, forced to by nature's own drug, adrenaline.

This standoff against an invisible enemy lasted 10 whole minutes. Finally, the sergeant called it. "I guess it was nothing boys. Come on lets go," he commanded.

Kaldus continued on, now with a far more wary eye on the jungle around him. Many a good Turian had died from a lack of perception of their surroundings. He would not be one of them. He constantly surveyed the sickly trees and the putrid bubbling swamps.

The next two paranoid hours flew by in a blur. Again, no one talked. The rotation of the planet was slowly catching up on them. A golden twilight haze filled the air, filtered through the canopies of the trees above them.

Finally, they came to a large clearing. Kaldus tapped the ground here with his feet.

_Good. Nice solid ground, perfect for setting up camp in the night. Open to enemy ambush though. If one of these new aliens finds us, we might be toast._

Suddenly, the sergeant put up his fist. Signaling to the column of well-armed and armored soldiers to stop.

"We set up here for the night. I want half of the squad set up on watch. The other half better get yourselves some shuteye because we will be moving out in 8 hours. No one moves out of anyone's eyesight, I do not want to lose anyone. We still have a mission to do. This site will be cleaned up by the time we move out. Is that understood?" he asked.

"Yes sir," came the unified response from the squad.

"Dismissed," Said the sergeant.

And with that order, Kaldus found himself going into autopilot. Find someone to talk to, set up camp, eyes on surrounding.

The first person he found was of course, Elya. "Not too worried, I hope. It's not good for you," said Elya in a soft and caressing tone.

Kaldus decided to pick up the conversation with his little white raven. "No, between a new alien species, a twitchy jungle, and a grouchy sergeant, I'm good," Kaldus stated sarcastically.

"How do you feel about the whole situation?" She asked kindly.

"Elya, we are soldiers. We don't get paid to sit there and think about our orders. We just do them," Kaldus said. He never quite like to associate anything in life with emotion. It made his job way harder.

"But you can talk about your opinions. You might have to follow your orders, but that does not mean that you can't tell me how you feel," Elya said, her voice taking on a concerned tone. She knew that it was not a good idea to keep emotions pent up inside, ready to explode like a volcano.

"I think that this is a mistake Elya. These people, this new race, we could be destroying their culture. For all we know, it was a misunderstanding. It certainly does not help me get any sleep at night, knowing about this," Kaldus sighed.

"Well, just remember that I get to sleep the first watch, as do you. I'm always open Kaldus," Elya said, her tonality adjusting to one of foreplay. Without even waiting for his response, she got up and began walking away with a gently sway of the hips.

_Damn that girl. We are in the middle of a combat zone. I am so going to make her pay later for putting me in bed. Sarge is going to kill us._

He followed her, intending to get some good night's sleep.

Life would never be the same.

XxXxX

Back on the fleet, Septilius was angry. He had failed his men. A look of pure rage was plastered on his face. How could this happen? This new race had managed to take out the entire landing force of shuttles. And the worst part was that Septilius did not know how.

Out of nowhere, there was a giant burst of electromagnetic energy. Septilius simply lost contact with the shuttles. If any survived at all, there was no way to know. From the reports that Septilius received before they went dark, everything seemed to take a turn for the worse. All of the shuttles started to fall out of the air. He slammed his talon onto the console, leaving him with an aching pain in his wrist.

With fire in his eyes, he turned to the ensign sitting next to him. "Any idea what that weapon could have been?" he asked angrily.

"No sir, we have no idea. We are detecting only a few gravitational distortions on the planet that indicate eezo usage. All of that seems to have originated from our own shuttles sir. There is no possibility that this was a conventional attack. Non element zero based projectile weapons have no chance of breaching shields," The ensign replied back smoothly.

Septilius clacked his mandibles thoughtfully. Gone was the outward rage, replaced by the typical cold and calculating expression typical of a commander. After a few minutes of thought, he turned and gave orders to his crew.

"Forget collateral, these weapons must be destroyed. I cannot land forces until they are gone. I want firing solutions on areas where the energy is at its highest point. Even if they are in a city," he ordered without pause.

"Yes sir," came the response of the ensign.

Septilius sighed. Today was just not his day. He felt sorry for these new aliens. He did not want to destroy them, merely teach them the error of their ways. But alas, they had forced his hand. He would regret this day for sure.

"Sir, round is chambered and ready."

"Fire."

XxXxX

_A Turian was standing above another Turian, talon held on his shoulder. They were both in an empty and flat plain with a yellow grass everywhere. The Larger Turian turned to address the smaller one, "Son, I want you to be the best Turian you can be. But do not let others say that a Turian's job is to simply follow his superior's orders. A Turian's duty is to the good of civilization. Never let anyone else tell you otherwise son. Promise me that, please," He said with a sad glint in his eyes._

_The other Turian looked up at him and said," I promise Dad, I will never let others define who I am," He said enthusiastically, like an innocent child._

"_That's my boy. Tell your mom I love her," He said with a faraway look in his eyes._

"_Yes dad, I'll tell her," He said with the same innocence of children._

_Suddenly, the ground gave way and opened into an opaque void. The larger Turian was sucked in, leaving the other wailing behind him._

"_Dad!? DAAAAAAAAD!?"_

Saren awoke suddenly in a cold sweat.

_Damn those memories, I need more pills._

"Rough night?" came a question from Saren's right. His eyes made contact with a Turian face, a blank face without markings.

_Ah Octaver. Always a welcome change from the rest of the ship of stuck up assholes._

"Yeah, I didn't get much sleep," Saren said, his eyes finding other objects in the bland room to focus on. Anything but Octaver's face. The entire room was a painful shade of disinfected white, almost hard to look at. Occasionally he would find chips in the paint that others had missed.

"Nightmares?" He asked.

"Yeah. I have been getting way too many of those lately. Need to get some more sleeping pills," He said as he proceeded to get up and stretch.

"Well I'm off duty right now. I think I'll go see Thallion down in engineering if you don't mind. Me and her got some catching up to do if you know what I mean," He said suggestively.

"If you ask me, Asari are where it's at," Saren said defensively as if Octaver had somehow insulted him.

Octaver put his hands up in a pose similar to surrendering. "Woah man, take it easy. You have been tense as of late. I think you should go grab those pills. I'll be down with my girl if you need me," He said.

Octaver then quickly got up and shuffled out of the room, never breaking eye contact with the back of Saren's head until he was out of range. Saren then clumsily got up and dragged himself towards the door.

_Maybe if I can get some more sleep after this, the day will not suck as much. _He said to himself.

XxXxX

A haze filled the room. It was dark and full of smoky fumes. In the center a man was sitting alone, surrounded by the void. His hands raced furiously across the keyboard, picking up every bit of information, anything that could hold a slight advantage. His posture was straight as an arrow, attentive.

Suddenly, the door behind him opened to reveal a woman in a catsuit. She walked forward towards the man, raven black hair swayed behind her. Her face, her body, were all symmetrical. It was the perfect embodiment of the golden ratio.

As she approached, the man did not care to turn around or even acknowledge her presence. She gently placed one hand on her hip and leaned to her side in a seductive posture. His chair was still turned around. "Here is that report that you wanted Harper," She said in a very formal tone. She handed him the electronic datapad. Odd how in this day and age he chose to have his reports delivered by person. His long thin hands ascended to her fair fingers. She quickly placed the report in his hand.

"Thank you Lawson. Please report back to your duties," Jack commanded. Miranda hurried like a puppy to obey and quickly turned on her heel. As she was walking out, Harper's voice grabbed her.

"What do you think of this report Lawson?" He asked.

"I think that this is a great milestone for us. We will continue to do what needs to be done," she said without pause for breath. Jack then took out his lighter and lit a cigarette. More smoke filled the room.

"Thank you Lawson, you are dismissed," He said. She briskly continued walking out the door.

"_Things are finally falling into place." _Harper thought.

He still had never turned around.

XxXxX

**Codex: Psychics and Element Zero- **For reasons currently unknown, eezo fields seem to weaken psychic attacks or abilities. It does not stop psychic abilities completely, but rather it resists. This means that direct mind control attempts or terror attacks on shielded enemies will be at about half strength.

However, psychic abilities like conjuring lightning or pyrokinesis seem to work just fine, even though direct attacks on the mind are severely weakened.

Because Yuri relies heavily on large scale psychic dominators to control his population, most basic infantry do not have access to shields. While shields do not stop the psychic dominator from entering a person's thoughts, it does reduce signal strength. This allows for people who are specially trained to block out mind control attempts all together.

**Codex: Virus Corps- **The Virus Corps was also founded during the initial takeover of earth. It was designed with covert ops in mind. The Virus Corps does not use one specific branch of humanity or alien races. Instead, it is based on skilled and independent operatives. Even calling it one unified Corps is a bit of a misnomer. Instead, think of it as a semi-independent intelligence organization with the ability to strike where ever needed.

The Virus Corps specializes in chemical warfare and special ops. Current estimated Corps strength is around 200,000-300,000. While the primary objective for this Corps is covert ops and WMDs, it does maintain a small and deadly frontline force.

This Corps rarely cooperates with other Corps, preferring to work by itself with lone virus snipers. Specialized equipment includes Dissolver Tanks, 'Cleanup Squads,' and Piranhas.

**Codex: Conscription Corps- **The Conscription Corps is by far the largest and most diverse of all Yuri's Corps. There is no one unifying idea behind each different division of troops and equipment quality varies greatly from corps to corps. Each division specifically reflects the personality of the Homo Superioris commander in charge of the division. Homo Superioris make up all of the commissioned officers who are lieutenants or above. Regular humans of course do the grunt work.

There is no one specific number for the strength of this Corps as the entire human population can technically be conscripted into service. However, Yuri simply does not have the infrastructure to field or transport such large numbers of people to and fro the frontlines. This does however make planetary invasions very hard, because unless the psychic dominator is taken out of the equation, the entire population will actively resist the occupying army down to the last man.

Or thing depending on how you look at it.

Most divisions in this Corps is equipped with only basic projectile weapons like AK-47s who have not seen any updates since the initial takeover of earth. Overhauling and modernizing this Corps would take massive resources that Yuri does not have nor would be willing to divert away from his pleasure experiments.

However, a few smaller special ops divisions made entirely of Homo Superioris have access to secret and experimental weaponry and are known as the Hellguards.


	4. Author's Note

Author's note: Sorry for not updating for months. This story is not dead, but on a temporary hiatus. The reason being that I found out that I was bipolar and am now seeking treatment for the severe depression part of bipolar disorder. Not surprising really when considering that most people of a creative temperament are bipolar. Will update when I feel ready to. Until then, keep this story in your alerts and all.


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